The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-27
ARCHERS FOR THE LORD.
TALMAGE TELLS HOW THE MIGHTY
NIMROD MAY BE OUTDONE.

Hunting Down and Destroying the
Evils of Society Greater Work Than
Staying Wild Beasts-The Arrow of
the Gospel Very Effective Weapon
The Churches Should Unite In Hunt
ing Down Sin.
BROOKLYN, June 26.-Many of the fami-
lies belonging to the church of which the
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., is pastor,
have gone to the country for the summer,
but still the great throngs of people that for
eighteen years have been seen in and around
Brooklyn Tabernacle on Sabbath days are
found there. 1t is estimated that about
300,0 900 strangers have visited this church
during the past year. The hymn sung this
morning was:
salvation, o. the joyful sound!
"Tis pleasure to our ears;
sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears"
DR.. Talmage's text was: "He was a
mighty hunter before the Lord nHGenesis,
x, He said:
In our day, hunting is sport; but in the
lands and the times infested with wild
beasts, it was a matter OF life or death with
the people. 1t was very different from go
ing out on a sunshiny afternoon with a
patent breech-loader, to shoot reed birds on
the flats, when Pollux and Achilles and Dio-
medes went out to clear the land of lions
and tigers and bears. My text sets forth
Nimrod as hero when it presents him with
broad shoulders and shaggy apparel and
sun-browned face, and arm punched with
muscle mighty hunter before the Lord y
think he used the bow and the arrow, with
great success practicing archery.
have thought if it is such grand thing
and such brave thing to clear wild beasts
out of country, if 1T is not a better and
braver thing to hunt down and destroy
those great evils of society that are stalking
the land with fierce eye and bloody paw,
and sharp tusk and quick spring. / have
wondered if there is not such o thing as
Gospel hunting, by which those who have
been flying from the truth may be captured
for God and heaven. The Lord Jesus in
His sermon used the art of angling for an
illustration when He said: 81 will make YOU
fishers of men, And so | think | have
authority for using hunting as an illustra-
tion of Gospel truth; and pray God that
there may be many man in this congrega-
tion who shall begin to study Gospel al cherry,
of whom it may, after awhile, be said: He
was mighty hunter before the Lord"
How much awkward Christian work
there is done in the world How many
good people there are who drive souls away
from Christ instead of bringing them to
Him! Religious blunderers who upset more
than they right Their gun has crooked
barrel, and Kicks as it goes off. They are
like clumsy comrade who goes along with
skillful hunters; at the very moment he
ought to be most quiet, he iscracking an al
der or falling over log and frightening
away the game. How few Christian people
have ever learned the lesson of which 1 read
at the beginning of the service, how that
the Lord Jesus Christ at the well went
from talking about cup of water to the
most practical religious truths, which won
the woman'S soul for God Jesus in
the wilderness was breaking bread
to the people. l think it was
good bread: it was very light bread.
and the Yeast had done its work Thoroughly
Christ, after he had broken the bread, said
to the people: Beware of the yeast, or
of the leaven, of the Phariseesg' SO natural
a transition it was; and how easily they all
understood Him! But how few Christian
people who understand how to fasten the
truths of God and religion to the souls of
menl Truman Osborne, one of the envange-
lists who went through this country some
years ago, had wonderful art i'm the right
direction. He came to my fathers house
one day, and while we were all seated in the
room, he said: "Mr. Talmage, are all your
children ChristiansF Father said: "Yes
all but De Witt Then Truman Osborne
looked down into the fireplace and began
to tell story of storm that came on the
mountains, and all the sheep were in the
fold; but there was one lamb outside that
perished in the storm. Had he looked me
in the eye should have been angered when
he told me that story; but he looked into
the fireplace, and it was so pathetically and
beautifully done that | never found any
peace until was sure was inside the fold,
where the other sheep are.
The archers of old times studied their art.
They were very precise in the matter. The
old books gave special directions as to how
the archer should go, ard as to what an
archer should do. He must stand erect and
firm, his left foot little in advance of his
right foot. With his left hand he must take
hold of the bow in the middle, and then
with the three fingers and the thumb of his
right hand he should lay hold of the arrow
and affix it to the string-so precise was the
direction given. But how clumsy we are
about religious work. How little skill and
care we exercise! How often our arrows
miss the markl Oh, that we might learn
the art of doing good, and become mighty
hunters before the Lord"
In the first place, if you want TO be leffec-
tual in doing good, you must be very sure
OF your weapon. 4 mere was something very
fascinating about the archery Of olden
times Perhaps you do not know what they
could do with the bow and arrow. Why
the chief battles fought by the English
Plantagenets were with the long bow. They
would take the arrow of polished wood, and
feather it with the plume of a bird, and
then it would fly from the bow-string Of
plated silk. The broad fields of Agincourt,
and Solway Mos, and Nevilles Gross, heard
the loud thrum of the archer's bow-string.
Now, my Christian friends, we have
a mightier weapon than that 1t
is the arrow of the Gospel; IL is a
sharp arrow; it is a straight arrow; it is
feathered from the wing OF the dove Of
Gods Spirit; it flies from bow made out OF
the wood Of the cross. As far as ! can esti-
mate or calculate it has brought down four
hundred million souls. Paul knew how to
bring the notch Of that arrow on TO that
bow w-string, and its whirr was heard through
the Corinthian theatres, and through the
court room, until the knees Of Felix knocked
together. II was that arrow that stuck in
Lnther's heart when he cried out: ooh, my
sins! oh, my sins" If il strike a man In
the head, it kills his skepticism; if it strike
him in the heel, 1t will turn his step; il 1t
strike him in the heart, he throws up bis
hands, as did one of old when wounded in
the battle, crying: "Oh, Galilean, thou hast
conquered"
In the armory Of the Earl of Pembroke,
there are old corselets which show that the
arrow Of the English used 70 20 through the
breastplate, through the body OF the war